BURLINGTON — The City Council has approved a tentative settlement with private developers on a highway project designed to ease traffic from Interstate 89 to downtown.

The settlement approved Monday would award a permanent easement between the large parking lot behind Innovation Center of Vermont at the old Queen City Cotton Mill and Pine Street.

As of Tuesday afternoon, however, neither Mayor Miro Weinberger, nor representatives of Fortieth Burlington LLC, had signed the settlement according to a published report. An assistant for the mayor said their legal teams were tangling in Environmental Court.

The Champlain Parkway would connect a section of highway that has sat idle for decades as the project hit environmental issues, funding problems and opposition from neighbors.